briefcase of his own, before Lee bounded through the living room. He
delivered a wave in passing to Ross, looped an arm about Chloe's waist,
and corralled her back into her office.
"It's about time you're free," he scolded good-naturedly. "You're a busy
lady."
Chloe smiled. "I'm all yours now. I want to show you-" The look on his
face cut her off. "There's something we have to discuss first. I think,"
he said, giving care to each word, "that we have a problem."
"A problem?" She frowned. "What problem?"
Eying her warily, he said, "I had two cancellations yesterday."
"Cancellations?"
"That's right. The schools. They don't have the money to finance us for
the next semester."
She sat straighter. "Are you serious?"
,"Very."
"But I thought-"
"So did I."
"I just sent Josh out of here with a great proposal. You mean to say
that he won't be able to apply it?"
"Not in Hingham or Westerly he won't. There are still the wealthier
communities.. ." His voice trailed off, his implication clear.
"But not for long. That's it, isn't it? You think we're headed down a
dead-end street?"
"Unless the powers that dole out money for education loosen up. They're
thinking A, B, Cs. We're talking H, I, Js. We're strictly elective, they
say. A luxury they can't afford."
Chloe's mind raced ahead. "A good third of our work is through the
public schools. Oh, boy. We'd better rethink that."
"Smart girl."
"Private enterprise," she announced without hesitation.
"Come again? Business isn't our field."
Chloe laughed at the confusion on Lee's bearded face. "No. But I said it
to Debbie earlier this morning and I meant it. What we need is to
affiliate ourselves with corporations as resident geologists, be the
geologistson-call for several of these large development corporations.
You know, like-"
"-the Hansen Corporation?"
The thought took her off-guard. "No," she said with deliberate care. "I
was thinking more of firms like Cabot and Walker, or Fennimen East."
But Lee was grinning. "What's wrong with the Hansen Corporation?"
"Nothing," she said, but rethought her answer when Lee was clearly
disbelieving. She lowered her voice. "What's wrong with the Hansen
Corporation is that Ross Stephenson is its president."
So?"
"Lee," she pleaded, "Ross is a friend. I would no more ask him to hire
ESE than ... than.. ." She went silent, at a loss for words. She was
hoping to survive a single weekend with Ross. She couldn't begin to
imagine working with him on an ongoing basis.
Lee grew serious. "What is he to you, Chloe?"
She sighed, giving up the struggle to find excuses. "We knew each other
before Crystal died."
"He's the one, isn't he?" There was only kindness in Lee's voice, yet
his words jolted her.
"What?" she whispered.
"He's the one-the man in your life."
"There is no man in my life. You know that."
Lee grew gentler. "Over the years, I've learned a lot about you. You've
told me about your sister, that she died, that you rarely visit your
family back in New Orleans. But you never talk about men. You're a
beautiful person, Chloe. I know it, and he knows it." He tilted his head
toward the living room. "I dare you to look me in the eye and deny that
there was ever anything between the two of you."
She couldn't lie. Not to Lee. "I can't do that. But, whatever it was,
it's over."
"You think so?"
"Yes." She said it firmly, and held her head the same way.
Lee studied her for a long minute, before making a show of wiping his
hands together. "Well, then, I guess that settles that." He graciously
redirected the conversation to safer ground. "I do agree with you that
the private business sector could be a promising outlet. I'll be in
Washington next week to work with the Coast Guard on the Gulf project.
Let me see what nosing around I can do while I'm there."
"How much longer will the training project take?"
"With the government, that's a good question. And when it comes to oil
spill cleanups, no amount of training is ever enough. I would guess the
present phase will take another few months at least."
Chloe contemplated those coming few months. Unthinkingly, she glanced
toward the door.
Lee headed that way. "I can take the hint, pretty lady." His hand was on
the knob before she could call him back. "Anything else can wait. Have
fun!" He left with a wink.
"Lee! Wait-"
But one dark head was replaced by another. "At last," Ross said and
closed the office door. "Alone at last."
Chloe forced herself to sit back slowly. "I hadn't realized you would
hang around all morning. I hope you weren't bored."
"Actually"-he circled her desk to plant himself on the corner nearest
her-"I went over some papers of my own. I'm a good loser, for a
morning." He cocked his head toward the door. "Ready to go?"
"Go? Where?"
"Oh"-he looked out the window in amusement-"I thought you could show me
around town. I'm a stranger to these parts."
Judging from the confidence he exuded, it was a wonder that any parts
were strange to him. Chloe couldn't ignore the thread of excitement that
he had brought with him into the room. Indifference, she reminded
herself. But it was a tough order.
Standing quickly, she tried to remedy the situation. "I wish I could
help, but I still have-" A strong arm caught her waist. Before she could
say another word, she was imprisoned between his thighs.
"All work and no play-"
"Makes a successful scientist."
"And a very dull woman."
She frowned, unwittingly taking his bait. "Do you think my work is
dull?" Her disappointment was genuine. So was the devastatingly handsome
smile that spread across his face. The hands that were looped loosely
behind her, now brought her closer.
"Nothing about you is dull," he said, "except your determination to hold
me at arms' length."
Arms' length was a lot farther than where she was now. Well within the
circle of his arms, with her hands braced at the point where his jeans
met his hips, she was under his spell.
Ross lowered his head and kissed her, tasting the sweetness of her
mouth, and it struck her that she might well have been too successful at
her own game. By denying the past, she was responding to him in the
present alone. Her return kiss was gentle, sampling. She played with
being free of all memory, all guilt. Her lips opened to his. She gave of
herself as she hadn't done in years.
"That was nice," he whispered against her mouth, then pulled away and
set her back before she could do it herself. He trailed a long thumb
across her cheek to the lips he'd just left. "We'll do it again soon."
It was said so gently and carried such lightness that Chloe couldn't
help but smile. A warm flush painted her cheeks a comely pink,
complementing the gray of her eyes, which held a hint of apology. "You
have a way of sneaking up when a girl least expects it, Ross. What am I
going to do with you?"
His gaze told her first, and there was something heady about it, until
he added, "You're going to love me one day. That's what you're going to
do."
She stiffened, but he went on. "Right now, you're going for a ride with
me."
"I have errands to do," she protested.
"Like? "
"Like marketing, for starters. In one meal you've nearly wiped me out."
"So we'll go to the market. What else?"
She adlibbed. "I need new house plants for the living room. With winter
coming on-"
"Winter? It's creeping up toward seventy again today. How can you think
of winter?"
"It'll be here. And anyway, the sooner the plants get used to the house,
the easier it will be for them to adapt to the cooler weather."
His gaze narrowed. "I bet you talk to your plants."
"No. If I did that, they might think I was flaky. I want my plants to
respect me."
She doubted Ross heard her. He was focusing on her mouth, looking
entranced. Suddenly he slid the fingers of both hands through the hair
on either side of her face, brought his own head down, and kissed her
again. This time there was a hunger there hadn't been before, a new
urgency. This time Chloe was frightened. How not to lose herself in that
hunger?
"Ross," she cried, "don't, please, don't."
He released her. His voice remained husky, but his eyes held a promise.
"I won't push you now. But you will love me one day. One day soon."
"You're wrong-"
"Not this time, princess." He paused to let his breathing steady. "Let's
go. We'll stop for lunch first. I'm starved."
Chloe took a steadying breath of her own. "After that breakfast?"
"That breakfast," he grumbled, "was interrupted. And anyway, that was
this morning. It's nearly two. Any more feeble excuses to try on me
before we leave?"
Chloe looked around her office. Its familiarity gave her strength.
Indifference. She could do it.
"Not a one," she said, preceding Ross from the room without another
word. It was only when they reached the front door that she felt an odd
sense of adventure. Eyes alight, she turned back to Ross. "I have an
idea. Let's take the bike."
"I have a better idea," he countered, pulling the neck of his turtleneck
away from his skin. "Let's change into cooler things. I hadn't expected
it would get so warm."
Assuming that his clothes were still at Lee's house, she felt generous.
"Okay. You go back and change. I'll just sit here and-hey! What are you
doing?"
It was pretty obvious, actually. With a fast tug he freed his sweater
from his jeans, crisscrossed his arms, and smoothly whipped the black
turtleneck over his head and off. Never, ever, would Chloe forget that
moment when, muscles stretched, his chest came into view.
Lightly bronzed, with a liberal hazing of hair that tapered toward his
navel, it was a solid wall of hard, glorious flesh. Her mouth went dry.
She could only stare.
"My bags are right here," he replied, retrieving a soft leather duffel
from beside the sofa. Long arms pulled at the duffel's zipper. Deft
fingers exchanged the sweater for a lighter, short-sleeved jersey. He
quickly drew it over his head. Once more Chloe trembled as that body
stretched, flexed, then settled back down, mercifully covered again.
Ross grinned. "There. Easy enough. Do you need to change or anything?
Are you cool enough?"
Chloe didn't think she would ever be cool enough again. "Uh, I'm fine."
She cleared her throat awkwardly, turning and escaping to the wide open
spaces without any further attempt at wit. And she had suggested taking
the bike! They would be better off swimming. They might not get to any
store, but they would have a barrel of much-needed cold water between
them!
But too late. He was at her heels as she led the way to the side shed
that housed her motorbike.
"You drive this yourself?" Ross asked, eyeing the small vehicle with
something short of trust.
"Sure," she said, praying that he not hear her breathlessness and guess
its cause. "It's great for the fresh air, uses practically no gas, and
does much less by way of pollution than my car." She paused. "Unless
you'd feel safer-"
"No. No. I'm game. Don't forget-of the two of us, I'm the original
hippie."
Chloe drove with Ross straddling the seat behind her, and it was totally
traumatic. He was near, so near. His arms were locked about her waist,
his body tucked against hers. Even the October breeze whipping by did
nothing to relieve the intimacy of the trip. When he spoke, it was a
nibble at her ear. A nibble? Had he really done that@r was it a product
of her overworked imagination?
Indifference. Uh-huh.
The road they traveled was one she covered daily. Its sides were edged
with maples and oaks, grown ripe and mellow now, on the verge of
bursting into autumn flame. Fields sprawled to the right, wooded
pastureland to the left. Ahead undulated a path to Sakonnet Point, the
very tip of the finger of land on which Little Compton sat just across
the bay from Newport.
If Ross was aware of the havoc his nearness wreaked on her, he kept his
smugness in check. Once, in a gesture of soft intimacy, he released her
waist to gather her hair together in his hands, twist the long fall
once, and tuck it inside the back of her shirt.
"The better to see the town," he murmured wickedly. He had to know that
her neck tingled from the touch of those fingers, her ear from the brush
of his breath, so much so that she was oblivious to much of their
surroundings. When at last they reached the wharf, with its graceful
fleet of pleasure craft, she was almost sorry. The intimacy had been
nice. She was strangely torn.
Not so Ross. "Ah! There's a place that looks like it'll fit the bill.
Can we eat there?"
The ultimate humiliation had to be being bested by a restaurant.
Apparently the way to a man's heart was through his stomach after all.
But then, Chloe wanted no part of Ross's heart. The restaurant could
